Wednesday March 30: - A new version of the chapter 22 lecture notes posted (around 7:30 AM) - The error on the syllabus is fixed. It had said the final was on Thursday the 10th of June, but it is Thursday the 9th of June. Monday 11 April: I posted a new version of the lab manual. The only change is an updated version of next week's lab on the nervous system. Don't forget this is an experimental lab we are trying for the first time. So not everything is likely to go smoothly. Wednesday 13 April: Scores and histogram are up. REALLY GOOD JOB FOLKS!!!!! Although the mean was kinda typical (70%), there was a huge blob at the high end. Almost 50 of you got scores that were 85% or more, and that means 24% of the class is in the A grade range. Congratulations -- this is a very nice result given that it was a hard test and there was lots of time pressure. Monday 18 April: In case you were not in lecture today and did not hear the news, I have to have semi-emergency surgery tomorrow, and will be out for the rest of the week, but back on Monday. I have not heard from the department chairperson whether a substitute lecturer has been arranged, so I can't tell you if there will be a lecture on Wednesday or Friday. Probably the best strategy is to show up both days just in case. Monday 25 April: I am back today - we will finish the sensory lecture and continue with muscles. I put up an updated version of my sensory-muscle lecture at 10:00 AM. No worries if you have the old one - just some expansion of stuff, no new material. Wednesday 27 April: I put up a new version of the chapter 47 notes (endocrinology), but the new file is the same as the old one. So if you printed it off before this morning, no need to do it again. Also, last year I streamlined the endocrine notes with the idea of adding a bunch of new material, but this never happened. So the endocrine lecture is just one hour long, not two hours as listed on the class schedule. On the other hand, we are 1/2 lecture behind due to spending a little more time on sensory stuff. So here is the plan: We will do muscles today, then start hormones. On Friday we will finish hormones with plenty of time left over and then can have a review for the exam. The review part is completely optional (well, so is the lecture!). You just bring any questions you have, I won't have prepared material. Monday 2 May: Well.... The 2nd exam was more challenging. The mean dropped a bit from 70 to 66. This is after an "adjustment". I went over the stats to find the most missed questions, and three of them I decided were either confusing or it was clear that you all did not get some critical piece of information in lecture. So I added 3 points to each score. Thus the posted score, and the one that will be used for further calculations, is 3 points more than the number printed on your scantron form. On the positive side, this is possibly the best class ever. You have done very well indeed when presented with a very difficult exam. If you can handle material at this level, you should be in good shape for all upper division bio courses and for professional exams. Parenthetically, exams are never intended to be more or less difficult. They are assembled from a mixture of old and new questions and sometimes, when viewed after the fact, I realize that the mix was skewed toward harder stuff. Wednesday May 4 I found two more bad questions from the 2nd exam. Sheeeeeesh, must be a record. So I put up an ammended score listing. Your final score is 5 points more than what is printed on your scantron form. Note that I *may* rework the histogram plot... or not. The shape won't change in either case, so it is a low priority, just be aware. Thursday May 5 I ammended the list of scores on the web site to show the 5 point addition for exam 2. Thursday May 12 Please note that there is a worksheet posted to use for the Ecology Lab (Lab 9, starts week of May 23). This is so you can hand in data without printing excess pages. Monday May 16 The scores for the 3rd exam are posted... histogram too. I have not gone on the bad question hunt yet. Might find something to zap. If so, scores will creep up accordingly. Please note that I will be out of town from the end of lecture on Wednesday through the following Monday (May 23rd). Dr. Cook will give the lectures on Friday and Monday. I will have to cancel the normal Thursday office hours for this week, but they will resume the week after and you can make an appointment. Also, relative to the final exam: There will be 50 questions from the material between the 3rd exam and the last day of lecture, i.e., starting with chapter 50. Then there will be 50 additional questions that come from the previous part of the course (chapters 21-22, 41-49). So 100 questions total. Tuesday May 17th. I went over the missed tally printout for the exam. The *most* missed were these: 1. Short duration hormone effects. Answer: circulating enzymes 2. Portal blood supply. Answer: private communication 3. Muscle component like an enzyme. Answer: Myosin (it is an ATPase) 4. Where does ovulation take place. Answer: Ovary -- but key mis-marked Mismarked key my bad. Everyone gets a point. The short duration hormone effect question was not difficult, so I am thinking I must not have said this in lecture this year. Everyone gets another point. The portal blood and myosin questions you should have known, no points. Informing you of this is NOT an invitation to complain about other questions you missed, and why it was not fair that the word "bismuth" (for example) tricked you, and everyone should get yet another point. I am happy to hear about *legitimate* concerns, however, as they may come up when those who check their scantron against the key discover an issue. I may or may not post a corrected points total. If not, just add two points to your exam 3 score shown on the course web site. Tuesday May 24 Someone asked if the final can be the lecture exam dropped. The answer is NO, everyone must take the final. After all, it is worth twice an hour exam plus it is the only opportunity to test on the last 1/4 of the course material. New lectures posted for population and community ecology. Just a few changes from previous. Going to try and get through pop bio and a chunk of community tomorrow (Wednesday). Friday May 27 Plan for the rest of the term: Today -- finish community ecology, start and finish ecosystems (a short lecture). Monday -- holiday Wednesday, Friday -- We will see and discuss a film relative to human impact on global ecology, which fits the last chapter in your text on conservation. It is a 65 minute film, so we'll do a first half on Wednesday and finish on Friday. I will generate some test questions for the final based on the film and the class discussion, so best if you can be there both days. Thursday June 9. Scores and grades are posted. There are a few missing, however. The testing center scores are not back yet. If you do not find your score (and you did not take the exam at the testing center) send an email and we can sort it out. Monday June 13, 5:30 PM I posted a revised list of scores, now including the missing students (testing center). This one is just a plain text file.